Fast Facts
The College Board is seeking an Executive Director for Student Activation to lead strategic initiatives aimed at increasing AP program participation and student engagement.
Responsibilities: Oversee the development and execution of strategies to boost student AP participation and exam completion, manage activation initiatives, and lead a team responsible for student engagement tools.
Skills: Expertise in education and college access, strong leadership, communication skills, critical thinking, and a passion for innovation.
Qualifications: 10+ years of experience in a leadership role within education or nonprofit sectors, with a proven track record in driving performance and growth.
Location: This is a fully remote role with the option of being hybrid for candidates near College Board offices in Virginia, USA.
Compensation: $152000 - $215000 / Annually
Executive Director, Student Activation
College Board – AP&I
Location:This is a fully remote role. Candidates who live near CB offices have theoptionof being fully remote or hybrid (Tuesday and Wednesday in office).
Type:This is a full-time position
About the Team
The College Board’s Advanced Placement and Instruction (AP&I) division develops and administers coursework taken by three million students worldwide each school year, and the related subject-matter examsutilizedby thousands of colleges and universities for course placement and awarding of college credit. The AP Program Access department within the AP&I divisionleadsthe growth and reach of the AP Program, extending first-time AP participation and ensuring those students persist through completion.
To do this, the team expands course availability and strengthens educator and school support to open college and career opportunities to more students nationwide. AP Program Accesscomprisesfour coordinated mobilization functions: K–12 Outreach, Educator Community, Student Activation, and School Success. Given the relationship between Pre-AP and AP access, the department also provides overall leadership for Pre-AP.
About the Opportunity
The Executive Director, Student Activation, will build and lead a new team within AP responsible for direct-to-student tools and program experiences that increase program interest, first-time participation, and exam completion.
This role exists to ensure students do not opt out of opportunity before they ever opt in. By owning student-facing access tools and content, the Executive Director ensures students see themselves in AP, take the critical stepsrequiredtoparticipateand persist through completion.
Impact Metrics:
- Increase first-time AP participation, including within priority schools and districts.
- Increase program completion among students engaged through activation efforts.
- Increase reach from AP Potential identification to AP course enrollment.
- Launch and scale new student experiences (competitions, readiness badging) with measurable adoption and engagement benchmarks.
- Ensure strong cross-functional delivery, team performance, and continuous improvement.
In this role, you will:
Develop Engagement Strategy and Plan for Scale(35%)
- Set and own strategy for AP Potential as a core student activation tool.
- Lead development of the student competition strategy for AP,identifyingkey partners, and mobilizing AP student participation at such events. This will include partnering with teams within the Access department that build educator competition toolkits and integrate project-based learning and student competitions.
- Lead a planning process to assess the creation of an AP Student Alumni Network as a tool to support student success and college and career planning.
Launch and Manage an Activation Portfolio(35%)
- Design, launch and manage AP Potential campaigns to students and parents in collaboration with partner teams within AP and across Divisions.
- Integrate AP Potential campaigns into state and district strategy for student recruitment.
- Develop student and family engagement opportunities and programming in collaboration with BigFuture to support AP participation within student college and career planning.
- Develop the programmatic content and events to increase reach among first-time AP students in partnership with the Engagement and Reach Division and BigFuture.
- Integrate middle school readiness badges toaccompanythe introduction of Pre-AP projects and support student practice.
Team Leadership(30%)
- Lead and manage a team responsible for student tools and engagement initiatives.
- Set priorities, manage performance, and coach team members to achieve goals.
- Foster an inclusive, high-performing culture aligned to College Board’s Operating Principles and Manager Expectations.
- Set vision and priorities for the team, track and manage progress to goals, and provide coaching and support to ensure team members meet and exceed goals, remain engaged, and contribute meaningfully to our mission.
- Cultivate an inclusive and high-achieving culture that enables all team members to live out CollegeBoard’sOperating Principleseffectively.
- Bring proven leadership experience and consistently embody CollegeBoard’sManager Expectationsin your work.
About You
To qualify for this role, you must have:
- Expertisein education, nonprofit environment, or college access with 10+ years of performing as a team leader/management role in the space for at least 5 of those years.
- A proven ability to drive performance and growth: you sethigh expectations, deliver real-time, evidence-based feedback, and coach team members to take smart risks, stretch their skills, and achieve meaningful impact.
- Critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, enabling you to navigate challenges and propose solutions that balance competing priorities.
- Outstanding communication skills, capable of conveying complex ideas to a range of audiences, from senior leadership to project teams to external stakeholders.
- Strong relationships and atrack-recordof effective outreachto andengagement with students and families.
- A passion for innovation, always seeking new opportunities to achieve your goals and broaden your impact.
- Effective storytelling in service of compelling others to action
- An eye for detail and quality, ensuring that all communications meet the standards for excellent and compelling engagement.
- Ability to assess talent, align resources with priorities, set clearobjectives, and ensure goals drive actions across the team.
- The ability to travel monthly to College Board offices or on behalf of College Board business.
All roles at College Board require:
- A passion forexpandingeducationaland careeropportunitiesand mission-driven work
- Authorization to work in the United Statesfor any employer
- Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions anda comfortlearning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.
- Clear and concise communication skills,written and verbal
- Alearner'smindset and a commitment to growth:welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receivingtimely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.
- A drive for impact and excellence:solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.
- A collaborative and empathetic approach:working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success.
About Our Process
- Application review will beginimmediatelyand will continue until the position is filled.This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.
- Whilethehiring processmay vary, it generallyincludes:resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as live coding, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks.
What We Offer
AtCollegeBoard, we offer more than just a paycheck—we provide a meaningful career, a supportive team, and a comprehensive package designed to help you thrive.We’rea self-sustaining nonprofit that believes in fair and competitive compensation, grounded in your qualifications, experience, impact, and the market.
A Thoughtful Approach to Compensation
- The hiring range for this role is $152,000–$215,000.
- Your exact salary will depend on your location, experience, and how your background compares to others in similar roles at the College Board.
- We aim to make our best offerupfront—rootedinfairness, transparency, and market data.
- We adjust salaries by location to ensure fairness, no matter where you live.
You’llhave open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and whatit’slike to work atCollegeBoard throughout your hiring process. Check out ourcareerspage for more.
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